How Obasanjo called me ‘stupid boy’ over diesel deregulation in 2004 — Otedola

Nigerian billionaire and oil magnate, Femi Otedola, has recounted how former President Olusegun Obasanjo furiously called him a “stupid boy” during a heated encounter over the deregulation of diesel importation in 2004, accusing him of misleading the presidency.

In his soon-to-be-released memoir titled ‘Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business’, Otedola detailed the intense backlash he faced after the federal government liberalised diesel importation, a move he had supported and assured the president would not lead to supply disruption.

According to Otedola, before the deregulation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) held a monopoly on diesel imports, selling below market value and receiving federal government subsidies. Otedola, through his company Zenon Petroleum, had pushed for liberalisation, assuring Obasanjo that the private sector could meet national demand without relying on NNPC.

Otedola had assured Obasanjo that the private sector could meet local demand without the involvement of the NNPC, which was selling below market price and getting subsidy reimbursement from the federal government.

The billionaire businessman wrote in excerpts shared with The Cable: “When President Obasanjo deregulated diesel in 2004, Zenon took an unassailable lead in the market. My opponents’ reaction was to tell the president that we’d turned the market upside down [and that the] economy was about to be brought down because there was no diesel, and Obasanjo was mad at me because he’d sought and received assurances from us that NNPC’s exit from diesel importation wouldn’t affect supply.

“My critics then fanned the flames by telling him there was no diesel in the country, that trucks couldn’t move and that industries were shutting down.

“The President… called me at 2 am, shouting through the phone. ‘You’re a stupid boy! God will punish you! You persuaded me to deregulate diesel, and now there’s no diesel in the country!’ He was livid. I flew to Abuja the following day.

“As soon as Obasanjo saw me, he flew into a rage again. ‘What kind of rubbish is this? What kind of nonsense is this?’ He was right in my face, screaming at the top of his lungs. I allowed him to cool down, and when he stopped talking, I tried to explain the situation. ‘Baba, they’re lying to you. It’s all lies. I have six ships waiting to discharge big supplies of diesel.’”

He said he told Obasanjo that there was diesel all over the country and showed him letters of credit for all the cargoes.

“I was even paying demurrage. I told the president that I was the victim of competitors’ backbiting,” he wrote, saying he asked Obasanjo to “see what they come up with next… You’ll see that it’s me who’s telling you the truth.”

To address the disinformation head-on, Otedola said, he told Obasanjo he would start advertising the availability and price of diesel on the front page of the newspapers, addressing any concerns about fair and consistent pricing.

He said, “I knew it was people in NNPC, the state monopoly, in their now, teetering positions of power, who were against deregulation, who’d been telling him these lies. They wanted to continue to import and rake in the subsidy money.

“Obasanjo was a determined and robust president. Jealous people did not easily sway him. Once he made up his mind that someone was trustworthy and genuine, as he seemed to do about me that day, he stopped listening to the naysayers.”

‘Making It Big’ is Otedola’s first published book and is scheduled for release on August 18, 2025, under his publishing imprint, FO Books. The memoir has already drawn praise from global figures including WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina, business tycoon Aliko Dangote, Doyin Group founder Samuel Adedoyin, and former World Bank VP Arunma Oteh.

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